Advocacy, Community Engagement and Media

Presentation to the Ontario Minister of Finance

Presentation to Ontario Finance Minister, Charles Sousa, by the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction’s Social Assistance Reform Work Group Co-Chair, Laura Cattari: April 2nd, 2013

“My name is Laura Cattari. I am Co-Chair of the Social Assistance Reform Work Group for the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction. I am leading the sub-group on Social Assistance Reform implementation.

I am here to say all budget funding to social assistance must reflect the reality that there is nothing left to take away from recipients.

The Commissioner’s recommendations in Brighter Prospects calls for an immediate increase of a $100 for single Ontario Works recipients, we say without eliminating the Special Diet Allowance before new basic rates being established. The effect of it’s elimination would mean higher health care costs for the province.

We ask you allow recipients retention of the first 200 dollars of earnings monthly and increases in their asset limits. This allows for a greater level of personal solvency, making the transition from poverty to prosperity smoother and more sustainable.

We call for the immediate reinstatement of Community Start-Up and Maintenance Benefits and Discretionary Benefits. The regressive move in last year’s budget is in direct opposition to the Commissioner’s recommendation of more universal supports. Homelessness costs you far more than providing these benefits. Lost productivity costs us far more than fixing teeth.

The dialogue birthed from the Commissioner’s process should not end there. We call on this budget to include the creation of an office of oversight for reforms and poverty reduction: an arms-length body, inclusive of the community, employers and those of lived experience with the system. Better still, a rates board composed of the same, to determine evidence based rates that reflect an adequate standard of living, as proposed in Bill 235, presented in 2007 by the Honourable Minister Ted McMeekin.

There is an investment cost to this. The reality of creating this vision needs to be founded in a larger context; encompassing policy and spending far beyond the scope of a single ministry. The costing of social assistance and sought after savings, must include costs to other ministries that occur while keeping individuals in sustained poverty.

Investing in recipients sees greater returns than infrastructure spending. This is totally measurable. Dr Kubursi, of Econometrics Research Limited found in Hamilton alone the stimulus effects of social assistance payments averaged 2.33 for every dollar spent, 39% of this is recovered in taxes. In comparison, infrastructure spending is pegged at an average 1.8 stimulus.

Yes, I am speaking of stimulus spending. An IMF report released last January cites global austerity measures as an error in judgement. Every dollar in austerity cuts costs us a $1.50 in GDP.

We cannot slash our way to better health; physically, socially or economically. It is our hope you consider this in your budget deliberations.”

“The International Monetary Fund is revising its metrics on how fast governments should cut their budgets, with the IMF’s top economist making the case that Europe’s fiscal diets were too severe.

In a new paper published Thursday, IMF Economic Counsellor Olivier Blanchard and research-department economist Daniel Leigh show the IMF recommended slashing budgets too fast early in the euro crisis, starving many economies of much-needed growth.

In “Growth Forecast Errors and Fiscal Multipliers,” Messrs. Blanchard and Leigh calculate IMF and European economists underestimated the euro-for-euro effect of cutting government budgets. While economists expected that cutting a euro from the budget would cost around 50 cents in lost growth, the actual impact was more like 1.50 per euro.”

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Laura on Twitter

It’s not good enough to say inequality is stable. We need a properly adjusted MBM to get an accurate poverty line. StatsCan’s survey showed over 90% of people said the housing amount is too low. That’s a very big problem. thestar.com/amp/politics/p…

RT @WabKinew One of the things I’m very proud of in our platform “For All Of Us” is in addition to transitioning EIA to a basic income model, we moved it under health care...
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Addressing poverty & housing mean addressing social determinants of health & will help our province be healthier

RT @TomCoopster One year ago, the new Ontario government broke an election promise & announced cancellation of the Ontario #BasicIncome Pilot Project, throwing the lives of 4,000 participants into chaos. To those courageous individuals who self-advocated, shared stories & fought back..Thank you! pic.twitter.com/4njgpFxra0

RT @HCCI1 What is a Hate Crime? A hate crime is committed to intimidate, harm or terrify not only a person, but an entire group of people to which the victim belongs. It is a one which hate is the motive & can involve intimidation, harassment, physical force to person(s), group or property pic.twitter.com/XlL9VMIZSK

RT @JohnPaulDanko As a P.Eng. I am furious that @OntarioPCParty went out of it's way to remove the simple provision of an EV charging station rough-in from the ON Building Code. We will review options to address this at the #HamOnt City level - maybe a requirement for a beer fridge rough in 🍺? pic.twitter.com/AcC13PuMUk